By: Rick Schwarz
Gym-Masters: More Than a Gymnastics Team!
When the opportunity to share how we integrate religious values into our teaching was presented to us at a faculty meeting, I thought back to how God had used physical education teachers and coaches to impact my life. And then, during our colloquium, they stressed telling our story. I felt compelled to tell mine. So, you’re about to read how God used physical education and gymnastics to give direction to my life and to some of my students.
My direction in life started early, as a preschooler. I loved to run and jump and explore. I was always being told to get down from the highest tree limbs, the counters, and even off the refrigerator. I didn’t really like school. The exception, however, was recess. I looked forward to recess even if it was raining outside, and we had to play inside games such as jump the creek.
One day while in 7th grade PE, Miss Ingred Johnson, a professor in physical education at Andrews University walked up to me and told me I would make a great physical education teacher. What she saw in me I never asked her, but she gave me a dream that became reality. In 8th grade, I had my first exposure to gymnastics, but it was only for a few weeks. Then circumstances during my junior year lead me to a boarding academy—Cedar Lake Academy. It was there that I began my gymnastic career. Following my academy days, I proceeded to Andrews University for four years. After graduating, I was off to teach and coach. I spent 2 years at Spencerville Jr. Academy, north of Washington D.C and then 21 years at Spring Valley Academy, in Ohio.
While at Spring Valley, I got involved with competitive Sport Acrobatics. I was fortunate to get a chance to represent the United States at the World Championships of Sports Acrobatics in 1992. While walking into the stadium God spoke to me, and I have never been the same since. It was due to this spiritual awaken that God impacted my life and later my way of coaching at Southern Adventist University.
In the spring of 2000, I was asked to be the Gym-Masters coach at Southern Adventist University. The Gym-Masters are Southern Adventist University’s gymnastic/acrobatic team. They are widely known as America’s Anti-Drug acrobatic team, and a recruiting tool to our academies. I had just finished 23 years of coaching academy and elementary PE and had no idea of how to coach college kids. As I was driving a U-Haul truck down I-75, all sorts of ideas flew around in my head—how to run practice, where and how to get shows, how to get the right students, where to get new uniforms and warm-ups, etc. Then somewhere in the mountains of Tennessee, I realized that the job was way bigger than me. The only way for me to succeed was to ask God to lead me in what would give Him honor and praise.
As I drove along, I gave the Gym-Masters to God. Almost immediately, I was impressed to look at the team as a church. I knew nothing of pastoring; however, I realized my role was more than just a coach. I was to be a spiritual leader to this special group of kids.
The summer before starting my new position quickly ended, and I was soon busy teaching gymnastics and learning how to relate to almost adults who thought they were adults. That first year was a blur, and I made plenty of first-year coaching mistakes, but every time I was in a bind and needed help, God saw me through. For example, one key thing that happened that first year was the development of a yearly “theme” which would give us direction for the year. Not only would a theme give us direction for gymnastics, it also would give us direction for the spiritual program. If you have ever stepped into our gym you will see eighteen banners hanging on our walls. Each banner has that year’s theme and corresponding Bible verse written on it. I would like to take credit for coming up with the idea, but it happened quite by accident. Or, should I say, it was the first thing that God did to show me He was interested in the Gym-Masters.
Later on, during the year, Gym-Masters were to host a gymnastics clinic in fall for the Southern Union academies. To tie all three days together, I had been trying to come up with a catchy word or phrase to call our clinic. Because gymnasts are risk takers, I was trying to think of how I could use this idea with the clinic. Then one night, after asking God to HELP! I awoke with “RISK IT” running through my head. As I lay in my bed, I could see how easily RISK IT related to gymnastics, but how would I tie it into the spiritual program? I thought, “We need to risk everything for Jesus.” Then I wondered, how do you “RISK IT” for Jesus? What are the steps? What needs to be done first?
Then in the darkness of my room, it came to me—use RISK IT as an acronym to tell the first step. Well, I still did not know what the first step was. While I was trying to figure out the first step, I remembered a small book from college: Webster’s New Word Speller. That book helped me pass my freshman composition classes. These were the days before there were computers and the little red lines under misspelled words. I decided to get it in the morning and look through it to see if I could come up with words that would fit RISK IT, but God had a different plan. I tossed and turned, trying to get back to sleep. I started complaining to God, “Lord, I need my sleep. I have a lot to do tomorrow, and I need my REST!” I almost yelled that last word. It had come to me, this was the R in RISK IT. I jumped out of bed; I had to find the other words. I knew God wanted me to know them right then, and within minutes He led me to the first and second steps, “Rest In the Saving King, Initiate Today”. First, we need to learn to rest in Him—not do anything on our own power— then we need to initiate this resting today and not wait until tomorrow.
The clinic was a success, and I quickly forgot about themes and just concentrated on coaching gymnastics. Later that year, we were asked to run a clinic for another one of our Southern Union academies. When we arrived on their campus, there was a girl wearing the “RISK IT” t-shirt we had given out at our clinic. I wanted to see if our theme had made any impact, so I asked her if she remembered what “RISK IT” stood for. Without batting an eye, she said, “Rest In the Saving King, Initiate Today.” I was impressed, not only because she remembered it, but because I realized that a simple theme could actually impact someone.
On the way home from that clinic, I decided we would use “RISK IT” for our team’s theme for the year. I also decided, if possible, to come up with a theme every year. That sounded easy, but it was harder than I thought—until I remembered how the first theme came to be.
That summer as I planned for the coming year I started praying about two specific needs: the theme for the year and a team spiritual leader. I had tried to get the first year’s team to do a mission trip. But their answer was “No way, you are supposed to take us skiing!” I responded, “No way!” So, we didn’t go on a mission trip, and I really felt they needed a peer to lead them in what was really important.
I tried so hard to come up with a theme, but after thinking for days, asking others, and worrying for weeks, I finally got around to asking God. Taking the last year’s theme to heart, “RISK IT” Rest In the Saving King, Initiate Today, I told God my dilemma and promptly quit worrying about it. Sometime after that, my boss asked if I wanted to go to a fund raiser. I am not a big fan of fancy dinners and listening to boring people, but my boss asked me and, since I had only been here for one year, I told him I would love to go.
When the evening came, I reluctantly got dressed in my suit and headed to eat with my boss and people I did not know. The meal was nice, and I was enduring the small talk when the guest speaker got up to talk. He was an accomplished artist and drew a chalk drawing as he talked. His speech was about growing up with extreme dyslexia and failing in school because everyone just thought he was dumb. He felt that he would never amount to anything and there was no point in trying. Then, he had an art teacher who saw his talent and challenged him to not let other peoples’ attitudes determine his success. It had been hard for him. In fact, it took him a whole year to read a book; but he learned that his attitude, not others, determined the height of his success. Although it took him a year to read a book, he was eventually able to write one.
As I left that evening, I praised God for letting me hear that man’s story and for giving me a theme: “Attitude Determines Altitude.” When I got home, I quickly looked in the Bible concordance for the word “attitude”. I found Philippians 2:5 that states, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” And what was that attitude?—to humble Himself to be servant to all.
That summer, I spent a lot of time thinking about that theme and how we could have the attitude of Christ Jesus in our gymnastics team. My second prayer request was soon answered during tryouts when this big guy asked to talk to me after the first night of tryouts. He said he was interested in the team but really wanted more than just being on the Gym-Masters. He wanted to be the team’s pastor. He didn’t need to try out any more; he was on the team. God had just answered my prayer. That student, Benjamin Lundquist, was our team pastor for three years. He helped organize the team’s first and second mission trips. He also came up with the name for our church; yes, we had become a church and we meet every night in our “Blue church”. We take our “Blue church” with us everywhere we perform. You see, we found out God can use our love of gymnastics to share our love of Him.
So how do gymnasts who perform on blue mats witness for Him? Well, a couple of stories come to mind. The first story happened on one of our mission trips. We were on a beach in the Dominican Republic doing what gymnasts do after they get tired of the sand and sea—throw girls in the air! As they were doing their thing, a couple came up to me and asked if the students were Christian. I said yes, but I was interested in how they knew. They said, “As we were walking by and watching, we were impressed by how the kids interacted with one another. We just knew by the way they acted that they must be Christians.”
The second story happened at a performance. The Gym-Masters were known for doing NBA halftimes, and since I have been here we have done some. I have a hard time rationalizing the amount of time and money for a 5-minute half time. Is it really worth it? How can you make an impact on anyone? Or are we just entertainment? Yet, this story shows how God can even use an NBA halftime for His glory.
We had done a halftime for the New York Knicks the past year; but it was summer, and I wasn’t thinking at all about it or the upcoming year when I got a phone call from a young lady. She asked if I had a team member named Kyle Littell. I told her we did and she asked if I had his contact info. I reluctantly gave her his telephone number, but that was all. I waited for the year to start and I asked Kyle if he had gotten a phone call from a young lady this summer. He said he had and he told me this story. He was on a flight back from Alaska and was sitting next to this young lady. They started talking and she asked him what he did for fun. He shared that he was on a college gymnastic team that did NBA halftimes and mission trips. She said she had seen a gymnastics team perform at the Knicks game that past year. After comparing dates, they decided it was the Gym-Masters. She was really impressed though, by the mission trips that Kyle had shared. I told Kyle, “Wow that’s cool,” thinking that that was all to the story. But, Kyle said that was not the end of the story. She was a women’s underwear designer and after returning from Alaska and talking with Kyle, she wanted to do something with her life that would actually help people. She was calling Kyle to let him know she had quit her job, had joined the peace corps, and was leaving soon to make a difference.
I could go on and on how God has used us to meet people and witness to them. I could tell of how we threw the actress Glenn Close in the air, or how we met the head of the D.N.C.D. in the Dominican Republic and how the team was able to have prayer for him in his office. But those stories are for another time.
Though we travel to many of our academies I have never been an overly ecstatic, jumping for joy type of recruiter. If questions are asked however, I will talk about the best school to go to for college. But let me tell you of four cool ways God used the Gym-Masters to recruit for Southern.
The first story is one of my favorites. It was sometime in late April and someone on our team asked me if I had recruited a little girl from GCA. I said, “What little girl?” You know coach, she was at ACROFEST, she really stood out. Well, to be honest, I don’t watch too much gymnastics at ACROFEST. I’ve pretty much seen enough gymnastics routines. But I felt impressed to call the coach and see if I could come down. I didn’t even know her name. After getting a hold of the coach I found out that they were to have their last practice that afternoon. So, I jumped in my car and headed down. It didn’t take long to pick her out and I knew right away I wanted her on the team. So, after talking to her and encouraging her to come to Southern, I left and just hoped she would come. I found out later she had no plans on coming to Southern until that afternoon because she really didn’t know much about Southern. She spent four years on our team. The really cool thing was to watch this little girl dressed only in black goth go from a shy introvert to a powerful leader on and off the team.
Another story happened at Ozark Academy. We were just finishing up our program and getting things loaded in the trailer for the 12-hour trip back when I had a student come up and ask a question. I was already looking him over to see if he looked strong enough for the team, but his question surprised me. He asked me if all the other programs at Southern were as good as the gymnastics program. You see, he didn’t do gymnastics, but he was interested in quality. I assured him all programs at Southern were quality programs.
On a similar note, a couple of years back I had a student at Southern come up to me and say, “You are the reason I am at Southern.” I didn’t ever remember seeing her in my life. I asked how that was possible. She said she was from the Dominican Republic and had never heard of Southern until she saw us perform at her church. She was impressed by the kids she talked to, and decided Southern was where she wanted to go to school.
Additionally, we have traveled to California for three spring breaks and performed at a few of our schools, but one time we performed for a public school. After our program, the cheer coach brought up one of his girls to talk to me about how to become a Gym-Master. This girl had never left the LA area, but she wanted to continue doing gymnastics and was interested in our school. Well she came, and was on the team two years, then went to school abroad in Italy, and recently finished her degree back at Southern. She was the first in her family to pursue higher education. I got a chance to meet her mom at graduation, and she was so proud of her daughter.
We have always had worship every night with the team, but a few years ago we seemed to be attacked by the devil. We were having injury after injury. Nothing really bad, but it seemed to be about every day. While running laps, someone sprained their ankle. Another sprained her ankle just dismounting a two-high. Another broke a thumb playing football. One dislocated her ankle just jumping about a foot high on the trampoline. That one was bad! The injuries were getting so bad I had asked some friends to come to practice and just pray for us while we practiced. While coming to the Lord with this I was impressed to move our worship time to the beginning of practice and to tithe our practice time. Since then we have spent the first 12-15 minutes of practice in worship and growth in our relationship with each other and God. The injuries have become less, but the most important thing that came of this is a statement to our team that God comes first in what we do.
In addition to the impact worship made to the team, our worship time before practice specifically made an impact on one of our team members. At the end of a year I was talking to one of the girls, trying to find out if she would be interested in a leadership role on the team. While talking to her, I asked her why she kept coming to tryouts that year, as she had a very heavy load with dreams of being a physical therapist. Her answer totally caught me off guard. She said, “That first day you had worship and then the next day you did it again, and I really liked having time to think and worship God.” You see, she had never experience this daily worship and it was something she needed demonstrated to her in order to start her own worship time.
So, does a gymnastic team really make a difference to the students on the team? Well I got that answer at the end of my first year coaching here. We had a year-end party where we shared stories of things that happened over the year. As we sat around a fire pit sharing the funny things that we did, or the fond memories of traveling all night, one of the guys spoke up. He was the biggest Gym-Master on the team. He started the year at 360 pounds. He shared how during the first week of tryouts Kevin had seen him on the promenade and invited him to tryouts. I had told everyone the night before to bring in some big guys since we didn’t have many trying out. So, Kevin saw the biggest guy on campus and asked him to come to tryouts. Well, he made the team and became a solid team member, and lost 60 pounds over the year. But what he shared caught us all by surprise. You see, this was a guy that was always laughing and was a friend to everyone. Everyone loved his “hugs.” It went real quiet as he shared back to that day when Kevin asked him to come to tryouts. He said that that morning he had decided to end his life; he had come to tryouts not to tryout, but just because he had been asked by Kevin. He said he went home that night and thought he would give this gym-masters thing a try. I am so glad I put him on. He called me a few years back to let me know that he had been able to shop at Walmart for clothes and didn’t have to go to the big boy store anymore.
Another example happened at a halftime show. We do local basketball halftimes and one of our favorite crowds is at Lee University. Nine years ago, after one of these halftimes, this really big strong guy came up to me and asked how he could be a Gym-Master. I just said he would need to try out and take some classes at Southern. We stayed in contact and he ended up staying at my house and being on Gym-Masters. Now he was not a Seventh-day Adventist, but he was really into Jesus. During many trips on the bus I would hear him asking other team members about some of our beliefs. Some would struggle to find answers. Then many nights after practice we would spend till early morning going over questions he had about our religion. It made me become stronger in my faith as I saw someone ask questions I had taken for granted. After that year, he left to go be a missionary in Mexico for a non-denominational church. While there one day, a discussion came up about what the Sabbath was. Though he was not a Seventh-day Adventist, he told them about Sabbath and that true worship happened on Saturday. After some pretty scary persecution with the Mexican Mafia, he returned to my home to figure out where God would lead him. Well, it led him to become a Seventh-day Adventist and right now he is a missionary to the Buddhists in the Philippines.
In answer to the question previously addressed, I have learned that coaching the Gym-Masters is more than just the type of gymnastics we do. It lends itself to becoming a family where trust is developed and where forever friendships are made. For example, over 25 couples have become man and wife in the 17 years I’ve been coaching here. Additionally, I have found that during practices and trips, Spiritual lessons are taught and learned. Majors and career paths are changed because of mission trips.
In conclusion, I will leave you with one more story. It’s about a boy who tried Southern 3 different times, but the school work just wasn’t for him. He was on the team for two years. One of those years I gave out to the team, the book “Messiah” which is the condensed version of the Desire of Ages. Well, this kid was an exceptional gymnast and got a job in Las Vegas for Cirque de Soleil. He was living the dream, making money, and making connections with the right people so he could continue his dream of becoming a stunt man in Hollywood. But he was not happy and he became desperate. He cried out to God and remembered that book he was given as a Gym-Master. He started reading it and soon fell in love with Jesus. He walked away from fame and fortune, went to an evangelism school, and now is a pastor of three churches in Canada. If it wasn’t for the mission of Gym-Masters, my son would not be making a difference for the kingdom of God. He told me recently, when I was questioning if what I was doing was what God wanted me to do, “Dad you are an evangelist who uses gymnastics as your cover to reach people for Him” and I have found this to be true.